Modern firearms, such as rifles in particular, may be more accurately and conveniently fired by the shooter if the firearm is equipped with a bipod device for supporting and steadying the barrel. Bipods may be fixedly or removeably mounted onto firearms and have been found to be most convenient if they can further be retracted in a storage position when not in use. Exemplary bipods and mounting devices are taught in prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,327,422 issued Jun. 27, 1967; U.S. Pat. No. 4,470,216 issued Sep. 11, 1984; U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,620 issued Dec. 2, 1986; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,641,451 issued Feb. 10, 1987; U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,425 issued Feb. 27, 1990; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,103 issued Jan. 27, 1998 the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. However, there remain various desirable improvements which have not yet been recognized in the prior art, but are addressed in the present invention.
For example, in various prior art disclosures, the attachment means that connect the bipod to the mounting block fail to achieve a solid physical connection between the two; the result is a significant amount of wobble, which is undesirable when shooting a firearm. Other exemplary patents relevant to bipods include: U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,103 disclosing a mounting block to which a pair of legs is mounted, wherein the mounting block depends on a square “pulldown” and a U-shaped yoke system; U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,974 disclosing a bipod with legs that can be quickly detached from a mounting block; US. Publication No. 2005/0188597 A1 disclosing a mechanism for attaching an accessory to a Picatinny rail; and US Publication 2005/0242250 A1 disclosing a bipod that attaches to an existing mounting block and protruding stud, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein in their entirety. While the bipods disclosed in the prior art are functional, there exists a need to improve the stability, efficiency and design of bipods and bipod attachments for supporting firearms.